Are Political Parties declining?

Are Political Parties declining?

HAROLD L. WILENSKY

Publisher:

University of California Press

DOI:10.1525/california/9780520231764.003.0011

This chapter addresses the party decline and analyzes the national variation in dealignment of political parties. It examines whether party decline is peculiarly American or a tendency common to all rich democracies and attempts to explain national variation in both the presence or absence of system erosion and the rate of change. It suggests that both tax-welfare backlash and party dealignment are indicators of a weakened capacity to govern, an erosion of political legitimacy.

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